Western Dancing at the Stagecoach

Today was a lot of fun! We went skiing for a solid hour in Teton National Park and I didn't fall once! John lapped me but I was at least 50% better than yesterday. After skiing we went over to Ian and Dawn's (neighbors next door) to watch the hockey final between the US and Canada. Dawn is in Colorado on a buying trip so we hung out with Ian, his eight year old daughter, Kendall and her buddy, Lexi. The girls played while we three watched the hockey game including the exciting overtime/sudden death round. After the hockey game John and I drove to the National Elk Refuge where we spotted about 20 rocky mountain sheep also known as big horn sheep. I got a few photos but the big horn sheep like to stay high above it all so even with the telephoto lens I didn't get the best images of these interesting looking creatures. Next we met Bob and Lynne at the Stagecoach for dinner, drinking, and dancing. The Stagecoach was tons of fun and two weekend cowboys asked me to dance, Mark from New York, and Bob from Western Massachusetts. Finally my own weekend cowboy asked me to dance. Believe it or not this was the first time John and I have danced together in public and we didn't even make complete fools of ourselves. The night wrapped up around 9:00 PM and now we're back at the cabin making plans for tomorrow. Hee Haw

photos 1. at the Stagecoach last night 2. John admiring Lynne's snazzy cowboy boots

XC Skiing and Sprouted Grain Pasta

We're just back from cross country skiing in Grand Teton National Park. It was my first experience on xc skis and although I managed to fall at least 4 times in less than an hour I had a pretty good time and a decent workout. Cross country skiing is basically gliding along in the snow while using ski poles for balance. I also discovered ski poles are meant to prevent falls and intended to be used to get up out of the snow if and when you do fall. It was a very good workout, so good in fact that I had to take off two layers of clothing because I was sweating so much. Of course as soon as I stopped skiing and the cold air hit my sweaty body I got chilled to the bone. Now we're back at the cabin making dinner for John's friends Peter and Inger who are due here at 6:30. After the dinner party John and I plan to watch Deliverance.

We had a very nice time with Peter and his mom, Inger. Inger was born in Denmark and as a young adult was active in the Danish Resistance movement. Inger and her husband Bob helped smuggle Danish Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden, their home was used as an underground railroad for Danish Jews trying to escape German occupied Denmark. Inger often speaks about her experiences in Denmark at local schools and community centers. She is 95 years old and still drives wherever she wants to go in her Subaru wagon. She also skis and hikes despite some knee/hip aches and pains. Peter is 65 years old and has worked as both a log cabin builder (remember he built John's cabin in the late 80s) and climbing guide. He developed cancer a few years ago and moved back to WY from CO to be closer to him mom and medical treatment. He still has cancer in his lungs but says the treatments appear to be working. He takes a lot of supplements and is very particular about what he eats, but John says that has been the case for as long as he's known Peter. When we ran into Peter at the grocery store a couple days ago he asked John to buy a specific type of pasta made of sprouted grains for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, the sprouted grain pasta was absolutely disgusting and pretty much ruined John's homemade pasta sauce. Oh well! The evening was still great fun.

After Peter and Inger left we watched Deliverance. All these years I've thought Deliverance was a comedy so I was mentally prepared to watch a comedy. I guess I thought it was a comedy because guys are always quoting a couple famous lines from it and laughing, but I'm here to tell you there's absolutely nothing funny about this movie.

Dinner at High Heskett

We're just back from a wonderful evening with Bob and Lynne, Lynne's friends from WI Ellie and Joanne, John and Bob's friend Loring and his partner of 25 years, Melody, and Bob and Lynne's neighbors Deborah and Greg. The drive to Bob and Lynne's takes about 25 minutes and their house is located at the top of a hill near the science school. Their place is the ultimate Wyoming getaway my favorite features are the enormous stone fireplace and plank floors. We had a blast hanging out with everyone, enjoying a wonderful dinner and lots of laughs. I'm feeling dog tired at nearly 11:00 PM so unfortunately I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow to share more details. I watched Good Hair while John was out skiing in the afternoon. I guess my expectations were a little too high and Good Hair turned out to be a Bad movie. John had a really good day of skiing including a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a remote area carrying his skies all the way up. He called before skiing down to report his exact location in case something went wrong, and about 10 minutes later he called from the bottom of the slope to report that he was safe and sound.

I couldn't resist posting this handsome photo of John posing in front of the cozy fire he built last night.

Huckleberry Hot Springs

Today got off to a rocky start for John and me but we managed to get back on track by the early afternoon and the rest of the day was fantastic. John decided to ski in the morning and left the house around 9:00 AM only to discover once he arrived at the gate to the park that he had left his wallet at the cabin. So he went to the library and caught up on emails before driving back to the house. The Comcast guy showed up around 11:00 to install wi-fi service and after about 45 minutes the cabin was wired! Fortunately, I checked to make sure it was working before the guy left because it was not working and he had to spend another 25 minutes or so working out bugs in the system. John arrived home a few minutes before the internet guy completed the installation. We decided to drive up to Dornan's for cookies and snacks before driving out near the entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We stocked up on cookies and milk and hit the wide open highway for about a 40 minute drive. The point of the drive was to get within snowshoeing distance of a geothermal area and hike to a hot spring there: "Grand Teton National Park’s worst-kept secret is actually located just north of the park in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway area. Formerly the site of a private campground, all traces of development have been removed and the 100°-105°F springs have reverted back to their natural state. Locals soak here year-round, using cross-country skis to gain access in the winter." The drive was beautiful, clear and sunny and even a little warm with temps in the 30s. The park ranger told us that sea otters had been spotted near some open water about 3 miles into Teton National Park so we stopped hoping for a sighting but no luck. The hike to the hot spring was really nice and very easy because others had made a trail so this snowshoeing adventure was really just walking in those clumsy snowshoes, and as a matter of fact we didn't even use them on the walk back to the car. The hot spring was HOT! A jacuzzi in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow covered mountains and evergreens. The water was very warm probably close to 100 degrees and in some spots scorching hot, but unlike a jacuzzi the natural spring is muddy, slimy, rocky, and a wee bit stinky. It was still a lot of fun and I'd definitely recommend a trip to the hot spring to visitors to the park. We got back to the house around 6:00 PM and had a really nice dinner, a fire in the fireplace (finally), and watched a western, The Outlaw Josey Wales starring Clint Eastwood. I could barely keep my eyes open 20 minutes into the movie but John enjoyed it; he loves westerns. This post is late because I really couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to blog last night.

Snow Day

Today was the first overcast day we’ve had since arriving in WY a week ago today. We lazed around the house for much of the day enjoying the snow falling outside and catching up with friends and family over the phone. I had a nice catch up chat with Judy who brought me up to speed on what’s been happening in her life since she retired at the end of January. I took what I believe was only my second afternoon nap since going on leave in December and it was absolutely fabulous! Today was the perfect day for napping and the only thing that could have made it better would have been a fire in the fireplace. I’m trying to talk John into building a fire for us later but for some reason he’s just not all that big on fire building. The internet installation was pushed back by a day so I’m still “borrowing” wi-fi from one of the neighbors and it should be installed here on Thursday. We went into town for groceries and for a stop at the library. We also made a stop at the video rental where we picked up three movies including two westerns, John’s favorites and I rented Good Hair. It’s been snowing all day so ski conditions should be great tomorrow and John plans to spend most of the day on the slopes. I will be at the cabin watching my movie and reading tomorrow.

We really should be having dinner right about now but John has been "helping" Mary with a paper for well over an hour more like two hours, so I skipped on over to the Swedish cabin to post this entry. Call me old fashioned but in the olden days our parents didn't "edit" our papers or help with homework after say elementary school; apparently things are different now it's common for highly educated parents to "edit" college writing assignments! It seems a very fine line between helping and cheating when a college student gets over 2 hours of help writing a paper it smacks of academic fraud in my opinion and how can someone feel good or right about turning in work they haven't done entirely on their own? Ugh! This is becoming a major source of conflict and might well be the death of our relationship because I can't stomach cheating of any kind! Does this sort of thing happen on college campuses all over the country? Have we really became a culture of "whatever it takes to win"? Am I just so out of touch? Should I just keep my opinions to myself and mind my own damn business, because after all what does this have to do with me? I am struggling with this and could really use some advice and guidance.

All is well here in WY with nothing too exciting to report. However, our dance cards are booking up for the weekend with plans for dinner with Bob and Lynne and some of their friends on Friday night, and dinner here at the cabin with Peter and his mom Ingar long time friends of John’s Saturday night. Peter built John’s original cabin in 1987. We ran into Peter this afternoon at the grocery store and I think it was the first time they’ve seen each other in several years. Peter is battling cancer and has been for over a year, but John thought he looked pretty good considering his prognosis and said he seemed in good spirits. I met his mom last summer when she came to the cabin for dinner. She’s in her nineties and still drives herself all over the place and is quite active in the Jackson community. She has an interesting story so I’ll tell you more about her in a future post.

Walking Through Snow

It’s hard to believe that two years ago tonight I was meeting John for the first time at Lucia’s restaurant in Minneapolis. Tonight we’ve just finished dinner together in Wyoming after an afternoon of snowshoeing in Teton National Park. In my wildest dreams I could not have envisioned this journey and that has made it all the more amazing. Although we’re embroiled in a disagreement tonight I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world.

I met John at the airport at noon and we headed into town for lunch at Shades Café and then to the library for a wireless connection. Fortunately, we didn’t spend much time at the library because it was an absolutely gorgeous day and one to be enjoyed out of doors. We stopped at the cabin and picked up the snowshoes and drove up to the park. This was my first experience on snowshoes and the hardest part was getting them on properly. Lucky for me I got it right the first time around and my snowshoe remained intact throughout the hike. John wasn’t as fortunate or maybe as skilled so his snowshoes came off a few times. Snowshoeing is basically walking through deep snow on something resembling a lightweight mesh skateboard (the original ones looked like gigantic tennis rackets). While snowshoeing is just walking through the snow it is much harder than it looks. Imagine walking through mud with 5-10 pound cement blocks on your feet! I stumbled a few times and fell down in the snow but my new soft shell pants and jacket kept me warm and dry. Actually once we got going on our snowshoes the performance gear proved a little too warm because it was easy to work up a sweat even in the cold because it’s hard work and the sun was intense. We pranced around on our snowshoes for a little over an hour but it felt more like two or three to me. We were back home before 6:00 and just finished dinner and I’m off to the Swedish cabin to copy and paste today’s blog post

Oh I forget to mention that I managed to lock myself out of the Swedish cabin last night after I posted that I would be sleeping there. I decided around 11:00 last night to put John’s car in the garage. Once I walked out to move the car I realized the door had locked behind me! Luckily I only had to drive about a 100 yards to find shelter and warmth.

Idaho Falls, ID

Whew... I'm really just too tired to blog tonight, but I'll give it a shot. I slept pretty well at the western cabin all by my lonesome and didn't let a few creaks and rattles disturb my slumber; although truth be told I didn't go to bed until I was absolutely exhausted because I was a little nervous about being there alone. Bob and Lynne picked me up for our field trip to Idaho at 8:30 sharp and I was at the bus stop right on time. We stopped for coffee and bagels in Wilson, WY and then off to ID. The drive to Idaho took a little over 2 hours although the distance from Wilson to Idaho Falls is only 89 miles. The ride takes longer because there's simply no way to drive 65 over the pass and up the mountains and around the curves and turns so the speed for much of the trip was below 50 mph. We made it to Idaho Falls just after 11:00 where we shopped at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, looked in on a furniture store, had delicious lunch at Cafe Rio, Bob went to his doctor's appointment and Lynne and I shopped some more at TJ Maxx and made another stop at Bed Bath and Beyond. We met up with Bob at the mall and all shopped at JC Penney and made a stop at Barnes and Noble where I was able to pick up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book I've been wanting to read for a couple of weeks . Our last stop at the mall was at Precision Mountainwear where I picked up a pair of soft shell ski pants and a soft shell jacket. Yikes performance gear... are you reading this Gretchen? Finally we decided to check out "downtown" Idaho Falls to complete the trip, but the drive to downtown took less time than the actual scoping out of downtown Idaho Falls. It was 3:30 or close to 4:00 when we started the drive back to Jackson. I had my picture taken in front of the the Welcome to Wyoming sign and shortly after my photo shoot we were back in the town of Wilson where we stopped at the Stagecoach bar for beers and a little mixing with the locals. The same band has performed at the Stagecoach every Sunday night for the last 40 years so we're planning to stop in on Sunday night and I'm hoping we can talk John into going. We met a couple really nice people at the bar and they're expecting us back on Sunday so we can't let 'em down. A note about the Stagecoach, it has a drive thru liquor store! I've never seen such a thing so of course I had to snap a photo. After the Stagecoach it was definitely time to head back home because Bob and Lynne had plans to hang out with their neighbors, and I was anxious to see how my purchases would go over at the Swedish cabin (shower curtain, towels, kitchen stuff, mats, etc). On our way to Solitude we spotted a woman stuck in a snow bank in her Subaru station wagon, fortunately she had a tow rope so Bob was able to pull her car out of the snow. It turns out she's a hospice nurse who was answering a patient's call when she got stuck. Her job seems stressful enough without the added stress of not being able to get to a patient in need; so glad Bob was able to help her out. I made it back to the SW around 7:00 PM. I think john will be pleased with my selections but I predict another trip to ID is in our future. I'm spending the night at SW because Bob located the circuit box so I don't have to blog in the dark tonight and since I'm already settled in here there's no point packing up at this late hour. John's flight arrives tomorrow afternoon at that's just perfect because February 23 is the 2nd anniversary of our 1st date:-)